being found guilty of revealing a confession, he says: He states that Henry de Bohic: Lyndwood then continues as follows: Upon the word "generaliter" there is the following comment: He cites Hostiensis in support. It is to be observed that there is nowhere an exception in respect of the crime of treason. His commentary on the duty of not disclosing the confession of a crime proposed to be committed tends to show that he would not have recognized any such exception. Pupilla oculi A manual, called Pupilla oculi (see Gasquet, Pre-Reformation Essays), which appears to have been mainly designed for practical use among the clergy, was compiled towards the end of the fourteenth century by John de Burgh, a professor of theology and Chancellor of the University of Cambridge. According to Edward Badeley who wrote in 1865 a most able pamphlet on the privilege of the seal of confession entitled The Privilege of Religious Confessions in English Courts of Justice, this manual, to which Maitland also refers, enjoyed great popularity. Its counsels to confessors who may happen to be witnesses in a court of justice are sufficiently like those already cited from Lyndwood's Provinciale to render it unnecessary to quote them. Analysis from the Catholic Encyclopedia The Catholic Encyclopedia provides the following analysis: The Catholic Encyclopedia goes on to quote Maitland on what it regards as "remarkable evidence of the acceptance of the decrees of the Council of Lateran in England". Speaking of trial by ordeal he says: The order, thereupon, proceeds to suggest certain rules for the judges to follow. Sources Attribution Canon law history History of Catholicism in England Legal history of England Priest–penitent privilege in England Medieval English law Christianity in medieval England